Decanter gained exclusive access to the private cellar at Damplo Mineo. What we found exceeded all expectations. Including the wine from Ciccio's private vineyard, which is technically not available but which we tasted.
The cellar at Damplo Mineo is accessible only to guests at the chef's table and, apparently, to us. Ciccio granted us access with one condition: "Don't write the price of the vineyard wine." We agreed. The vineyard wine has no official price. It exists only for those who receive it as a gesture.
The cellar is carved from the foundations of the 19th-century palazzo, four metres below street level, at a constant temperature of thirteen degrees with a humidity the manager describes as "the right one." The three thousand labels are arranged on chestnut wood shelving built by a Mineo carpenter who spent eleven months on the work. The investment was not disclosed. "Enough," said Ciccio when we asked.
The sommelier, Antonio Ferretti, is thirty-two and comes from Marsala. He worked in Paris for three years before Ciccio contacted him. "He sent me a three-line email," he recounts. "The first said he was looking for the best sommelier in Italy. The second said he'd found me. The third stated the salary and when to start." Ferretti accepted. "You don't refuse Ciccio Damplo," he explains. "It's not a question of respect. It's a question of curiosity. I wanted to see what he was building."
The Nero d'Avola from the private vineyard — two vintages available, 2021 and 2022, both produced in fewer than two hundred bottles — was poured into our glasses at five-thirty on an April afternoon. We drank. We understood why it doesn't officially exist. If it existed officially, there would be a waiting list. And the waiting list, with Damplo, is already quite long enough.
